Mission – From Mission RCMP: A 5-year-old boy is safe after he wandered away from a children’s day-camp in the Stave Falls area of Mission on Tuesday (March 18) .
The children at the camp had been outside playing hide-and-seek in a forested area on March 18, when the boy walked away from the rest of the group. Staff and the boy’s parents searched the wooded area for about an hour, then notified Mission RCMP shortly after 12 pm, when they were unable to find him.
Officers immediately requested a large contingent of additional resources, including Mission Search and Rescue, the Integrated Police Dog Service, an RCMP helicopter, and the Integrated Emergency Response Team. A coordinated search was organized and carried out in an area northwest of Hayward Lake. Despite the challenges of the terrain and the dense forest, the RCMP helicopter crew spotted the child standing under a tree near a creek, almost a kilometre from where the child was last seen. Searchers quickly moved to that location and helped reunite the child with his parents. Fortunately, he was in good spirits and uninjured.
Mission RCMP highlight this as an important reminder to call police as soon as someone goes missing. Even little legs can travel a surprisingly far distance in a short amount of time, says Corporal Harrison Mohr with Mission RCMP. No one wants to have to report a child as missing, but it’s so important to do so as soon as you realize that you can’t find them – especially somewhere like this, where we had to be aware of potential hazards including the forest, a creek, and the nearby lake. The sooner we can start the search, the more we can narrow down the search area and focus our efforts. Every minute counts.
Special thanks go out to Mission Search and Rescue, the specialized police units that attended, and everyone who helped to support the search effort.
